Whitehall Plantation

The original party rooms.

Because when you're at an historic home, you have to investigate the spiders...

A privately owned old house was open for viewing this summer, through Historic Annapolis. We managed not to find babysitting (not for lack of trying!) and took the boys, figuring that hubby could hang out in the grounds with the boys while I saw the inside of the house. But the volunteers were so lovely and encouraging, and gave us a ticket to a later tour so we could both see inside the house! We ended up wishing we had got there earlier to enjoy the large garden more fully.

Whitehall was built by Governor Horatio Sharpe, sent from England to be governor. It was simply a party house - three rooms (plus presumably kitchen somewhere) in which people could have gatherings, away from Annapolis. The front of the house faces the bay, where people came by boat. When he was done out of his Governor job by the brother-in-law of Lord Baltimore (who started Maryland), he opted to live there rather than return to England. It was a full working farm of 1000 acres.
When the American Revolution finished, he sold his property instead of swearing allegience to America. It was bought by his ex-secretary John Ridout. It was in the Ridout family until 1896, but then had checkered fortunes until in 1947 Charles Scarlett bought it and made it his life's work to restore it, including tearing down a second story added by the Ridouts.